Welcome back. The last step in the implementation of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is the onboarding of devices to the service. During this last step, you onboard endpoints to the service and then you configure capabilities.

Before onboarding your devices, you need to first decide which deployment method you need to use.

Defender for Endpoint offers the most deployment options for those who need to onboard Windows endpoints. For example, if you are onboarding 10 or fewer Windows devices to the service, you can use a local script. Other onboarding options include Group Policy, which is a pretty common approach, and Microsoft Endpoint Manager or Mobile Device Manager. You can also use Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager to onboard Windows devices, VDI scripts, or even rely on integration with Azure Defender.

If you have macOS endpoints to onboard, you can use local scripts, Microsoft Endpoint Manager, JAMF Pro, or Mobile Device Management.

Linux Servers can be onboarded using local scripts, Puppet, or Ansible.

iOS devices are onboarded through the app store, while Android devices can be onboarded via Microsoft Endpoint Manager.

Now, once your endpoints have been onboarded, you need to configure capabilities like endpoint detection and response, next-generation protection, and attack surface reduction.

I should mention that when you deploy Defender for Endpoint, you typically do it in “rings”. These rings are known as “deployment rings”. There are usually 3 different deployment rings that you have to work through. They include the Evaluation ring, the Pilot ring, and then Full Deployment ring.

You deploy in rings to ensure things are working as they should, before rolling out to all devices.

When deploying in the evaluation ring, you typically identify a few dozen systems or devices that you onboard as a small pilot. If everything goes well, you progress to the next ring, which is the Pilot ring. The Pilot ring usually consists of 50-100 production endpoints. If all goes well in the Pilot ring, you progress to the Full deployment, where you onboard the rest of your production endpoints.

By onboarding via deployment rings, you can limit any negative effects of a deployment gone wrong.

Microsoft offers some pretty good documentation on a few different onboarding scenarios. To read about onboarding using Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, visit the URL that you see on your screen.